Tag Archives: Book fair

Yesterday, I paused in my 30 day challenge to commemorate the victims on the 9/11 attacks. I could not decided how to mark the occasion, whether I should continue with my blogging, whether I should do a tribute blog in conjunction with Project 2,996. In the end, I just decided to be silent.

Today, in this author’s life, was revisions, revisions, revisions. It will be that way for a while, until I power through this next draft of the manuscript.

I have also been given some thought to my upcoming appearance at the 57th Street Children’s Book Festival. I have to make preparations to travel to Chicago and for the event itself, which of course got me thinking about author appearances again.

For my other authors and aspiring writers, do you go to other author’s talks? I will presume that the answer is yes. I know that I do. I have seen any number of fabulous authors. In fact, I would call myself an author groupie. I have seen Alice Walker, Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, Ishmael Reed, Laurell K. Hamilton, N. Scott Momaday…the list goes on and on. There are still a few that I really want to see, but I haven’t. At the top of that list are Toni Morrison, Stephen King, and Sherman Alexie.

Now, when I was going to see these authors, I wasn’t really thinking about the art of their presentation; I was more just geeking out at the opportunity to see the authors, whose words I had loved, in the flesh. Now, however, on the other side of the line, I have become more reflective about the characteristics of how these authors presented themselves–including their attire, their style of presentation, their individual demeanor. It occurs to me, now, that if your have a persona that is completely at odds with your writing, it makes it that much harder to connect with your audience. Also, if you have a persona that does not mesh with the audience that you are writing for, that can cause problems too.

Just like with the actual books, I am always thinking about ways to make the author appearance experience as great as it can be for my readers. I am building my fan base now, so that connection is really important. Plus, I genuinely love meeting people who have read my book, and I love hearing what they have to say about it.

As a teaser for tomorrow, I will say this. Those folks that are buying copies of the book now are going to have a collectors item, because after this print run is sold out, we are reprinting with a different cover.